Is the 8 bit scene dead?

[Ogertron3000]

There seems to be no activity on this forum and as everyone who was playing C64 and reading mags back in the 80s must be now into their 40s I was wondering is the scene dead and a new generation who look at PS2 and Xbox as retro taking over?

[andy vaisey]

Far from it!

Scene wise, things are very active. This last month there have been over 50 entries to the C64 Intro Compo. See entries here...

http://csdb.dk/event/?id=2526

There are quite a few games in progress, some crowd funded.

And this is just on C64. Things equally active on Atari 8bit, Spectrum, Amstrad, etc.

Others here... please also post links to more accessible sites!

[Ogertron3000]

That's good to see. Seems like an 80s flashback, being in australia and feeling isolated and not knowing what's happening elsewhere. I remember getting the mags 3 months out of date from the newsagents and reading reviews of games I'd had for ages, was also funny with the seasons bring the opposite of each other, sitting in sweltering heat playing games because it was too hot outside and reading an xmas special where they were playing games because it was too cold outside!
There was a lot of c64 interest around 10 years ago here but it's dropped off now, looking at this forum I assumed it was the same everywhere.

[Professor Brian Strain]

I suggest you check out http://www.reset.cbm8bit.com - a C64 fanzine made in Australia...

[andy vaisey]

Ah, Australia. In the future, may may be interested in this party...

http://syntaxparty.org/index.html

[Iain]

This forum isn't too lively, but as other have said, the C64 scene is definitely very alive. In fact I'd say there's more going on at the moment than there was 10 - 15 years ago, certainly in terms of new games anyway.

[Ogertron3000]

Thank for the info, much appreciated. Possibly the nostalgia aspect has dropped off but others are still moving forward with new things. I personally was remembering the good old days when I discovered this site, all the pressures of modern life sometimes make you wish you still had time to spend a whole day playing games with your mates. This site does very good job of capturing the excitement a new game or new issue of a mag used to bring. Would still be interested in tracking down some new release gamesjust to see what people are up too and just to see if the old faithful commodore at my parents house still works.

[Iain]

As Andrew said, Reset magazine is a good source of reviews of new games.

There is also some great hardware being made, like the Ultimate 1541 and new cases and keys.

Also many book being written about the computer and companies that were involved in it.

e.g. Generation 64 and A Gremlin in the Works published by Bitmap books

https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/collections/all

Or Fusion Retro books

https://fusionretrobooks.com/collections/all

[Sixteen Plus]

And of course there's the Lemon64 forum. The most active C64 meeting place of all to quickly find out all the latest happenings and many releases, imo.